When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions 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 demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
