When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
