When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing 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.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
