As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached 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 optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, 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 often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
