As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
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 notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, 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 post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
