When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, 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, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged 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 China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
