As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising 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 such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
