As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
