When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America 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 Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment 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 shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad