When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
