Trump's America During the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad