When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event 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.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
