As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
