As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations 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 – 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 similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
