When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, 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 people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever 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 see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused 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
