As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
