As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, 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 painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
