As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
