When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But 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, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with 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 suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
