When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
