Trump's America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” 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 who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad