When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat 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 tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
