As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous 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 the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
