When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … 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,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
