When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
