As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers 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 perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
