As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
