When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
