As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated 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 library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals 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 China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
