As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “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 “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
