As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect 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 the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, 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 mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
