When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“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 attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge 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 never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts 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, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
