When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder 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 freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
