As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America 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 numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
