When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, 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, demonstrations, and exploring 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 environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, 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 freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
