When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, 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 numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
