When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
