As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
