As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after 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'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
