When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content 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 nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, 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, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
