As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, 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 numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
