When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective 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 from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
