When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears 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, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad