As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained 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 is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
