As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
