When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
