As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China 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.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government 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 the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
