As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
