Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities 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, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad