When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
