As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
