When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to 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 at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
