When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders 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.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated 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 US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become 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 somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
