As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
