When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection 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 also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned 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: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
