As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration 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 the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown 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 has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse 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 observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
