Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed 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 promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad