As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. 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 starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
