When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration 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 US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
