As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order 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 the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed 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 would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
