As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, 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, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
