As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
