As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
