When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … 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 “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
