As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
