As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror 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 expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems 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 appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
