As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past 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 where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive 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 investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
