As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
