When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
