When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said 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 what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned 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 adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
