When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined 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”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
