As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
