When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US 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, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “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, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
