When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
