As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
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 sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
