As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth 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 since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
