When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects 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 recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened 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 in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
