When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However 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 also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see 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 legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor 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. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak 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 these days than say anything bad
