As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, 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. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
