When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “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 liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
