As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called 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 governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
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 sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
