When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
