When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled 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, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
