When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America 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 more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
