The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. 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 fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad