As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, 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 “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics 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 America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
