As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
