When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie 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 could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face 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 although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
