As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
