When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see 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, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
