As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president 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 temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
