The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of 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”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding 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 government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad