Trump's America During the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable 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 improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad