As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
