When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” 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 the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, 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 … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
