As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed 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 an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of 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 seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
