When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US 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 reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
