When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“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,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts 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 a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America 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 while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
