When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad