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

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself 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, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat 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 investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The government'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 will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad