As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens 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 brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“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, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
