When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, 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 notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
