When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
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 a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad