When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
