As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while 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 eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
