When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “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 democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
