As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
