As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
