When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
