As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. 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, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
