As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called 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. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident 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,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
