Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

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

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad