When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left 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 the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
