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

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever 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 have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America 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 recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad