When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
