When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation'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 vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
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 article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad