When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
