When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing 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 Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
