As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
