As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective 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, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao 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 climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
