When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she 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 social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
