When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
