When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left 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 China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
