When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said 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, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
