When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal 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, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
