As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” 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 concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
