When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly 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 in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
