As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
