Trump's United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.

However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad