When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, 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 painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
