As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
