When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
