When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start 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 the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
