When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
