When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved 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 library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But 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 also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding 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,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
