When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
