When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
