As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences 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 news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
