When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics 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 those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
