As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – 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 that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
