When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
