As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years 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, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
