Trump's United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see 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 organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge 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 “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad