As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different 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, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
