When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” 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 weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
