When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
