As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals 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 by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
