As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears 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 Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
