As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, 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 reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely 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, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
