When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office 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 find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse 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 critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, 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 painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
