When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable 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 improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
