When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
