When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom 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 espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing 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, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
