As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
