When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
