As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
