When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated 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,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
