As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned 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 the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
