As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, 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: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
