When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US 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 refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America 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 more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
