As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not 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, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’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 countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country 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 China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
