Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad