As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom 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 seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
