When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment 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 acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
