When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president 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 recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
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 have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without 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 country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
