As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves 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 China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
