As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“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,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, 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 risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
