As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president 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, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
