When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
