As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came 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 public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
