When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
