When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
