As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
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 Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
