When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when 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 this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China 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 – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe 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 many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
