When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered 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, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
