When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions 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 initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country 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 across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
