As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. 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 halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
