When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect 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. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
