As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking 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 a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues 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 the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
