As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
