When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
