As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. 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 reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
