As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
