As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted 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. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse 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 DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
