When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
