When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has 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 shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“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, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
