Trump's United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described 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 political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.

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 people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“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 originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding 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. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad