Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … 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, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad