When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
