When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures 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, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident 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 originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened 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, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
