When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers 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 captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, 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 diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
