When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, 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 rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
