As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after the president 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 unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
