As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
