When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed 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 on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … 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 early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
