As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves 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 the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
