When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
