When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than 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, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously 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
