As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions 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”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, 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, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
