The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad