When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated 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 organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos 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 settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
