When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of 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 top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – 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 was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
