When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump 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 bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
