When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil 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 recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
