When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … 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, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
