As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
