When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
