Trump's United States During the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad