When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which 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 that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
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 says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies 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 Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
