As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding 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 government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
