When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, 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 official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
