As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
