When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
