As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
