When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed 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 those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, 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 often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
