Trump's America Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges 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, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “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