When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
