As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump 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 Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
