When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. 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 “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
