When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … 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,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
