As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, 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, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
