When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol 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, critical of 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, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
