As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual 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 a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
