As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain 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 capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
