When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat 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 Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
