When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears 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 a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal 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 less luminous”.
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 … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “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
