Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

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

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

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

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad