As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
