When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god 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 appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
