As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
