When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer 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 democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain 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 approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
