When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, 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 in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
