As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost 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 talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. 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 the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
