When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated 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 monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
