When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
