As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
