When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help 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.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“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, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
