When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
