As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures 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 learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
