When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge 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 that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't 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, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
