The United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US 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, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad