When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
