Trump's United States During the New Administration Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America 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 after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, 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 the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad