As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US 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, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
