When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted 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 surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
