When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
