As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist 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 an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol 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 the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
