When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems 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 that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
