When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
