Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, 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 initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

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

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

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. 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 halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad