When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves 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 China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
