As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed 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
