As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
