As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such 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 … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
