As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar 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 students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting 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 fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
