As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
