When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge 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 “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
