Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, 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 the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad