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

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. 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, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse 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 somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad