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

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

But over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

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

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad