When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – 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 parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
