As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on 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 used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities 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, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
