When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad