When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
