As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
