When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
