When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting 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 declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
