When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation'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 governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face 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.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
