When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly 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 where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
