As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also 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 captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind 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 most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
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 sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase 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 refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “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 more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
