When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
