When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
