As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
