As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
