As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
