The America During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump 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 through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

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

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad