As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America 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 information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
