As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
