When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
