As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
