When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
