As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
