When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
But since 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 variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
