When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
