As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident 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 fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
