As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, 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. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
