When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon 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 CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered 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 would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, 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 observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
