Trump's United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China 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.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America 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 liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad