As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
