When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
