When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai 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 freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
