When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
