As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” 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 teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
