When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
