When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
