When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
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 the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
