As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East 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 the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis 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 many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
