As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America 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 top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after 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 the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
