When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
