When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
