As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it 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 equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking 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 fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, 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 the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
