When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, 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 noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. 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 countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
