When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities 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, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
