The America During Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … 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 at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

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

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad