Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences 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 required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad