When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed 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 originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
