As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
