As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
