When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding 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 dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
