As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
