As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, 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 nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … 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, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
