As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
