The America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about 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, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, 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 while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad