When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
