Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US'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 “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad