When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
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 somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
