When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis 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, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left 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 the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
