When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
