As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
