A cultural revolution? Trump’s America feels oddly familiar to those watching from China

Demands of absolute loyalty and attacks on institutions have raise memories of Mao-style chaos from US watchers in China

When Vickie Wang, a budding standup comedian, gets on stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what jokes to crack. She's also thinking about which ones to avoid. I don't criticise the administration directly," she said. Or if she does, she makes sure it's not recorded for social media. I would never publicly publish something where I directly criticise the government ... I think it's a learned behaviour from China".

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025 she relocated to the US. When she arrived, she went on a frenzy of revenge bingeing on democracy", going to talks, protests and diving into New York's public library.