The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. 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 the US, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up 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, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad