As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, 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 the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
