As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, 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 China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
