As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
