As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
