As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled 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 the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
