As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. 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 who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
