Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad