When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the 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 knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted 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. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
