As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
