When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president was elected 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.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
