When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
