When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur 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 state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
