When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
