As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
