As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
