When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of 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 after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
