As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. 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, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, 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 post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
