When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. 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
