When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
