When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
