As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
