As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration 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 US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
