Trump's America Under the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself 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 used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad