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

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.

But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

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

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad