As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, 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 such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
