When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“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 trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
