When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie 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 become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to 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 lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
