As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out 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 without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
