The America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad