As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment 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 stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, 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 while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
