When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
