When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. 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 disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
