When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing 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 habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened 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, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
