Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China 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’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, 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 after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad