As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation 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.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
