When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated 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 open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide 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 more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
