When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
