When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened 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, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis 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 although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
