When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
