When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“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 rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump 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 via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing 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 significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
