When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad