When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
