Trump's America During the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

But in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad