As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president 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, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments 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 “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
