As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
