When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, 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. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
