As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous 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, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
