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

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad