When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit 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 emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
