As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, 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 China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than 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 top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, 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 more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
