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

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad