Trump's America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”

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

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad