As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, 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 half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still 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 government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation'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 all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
