When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“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 trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
