When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors 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. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
