As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However 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, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. 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 seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
