Trump's America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

But in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country 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 see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.

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

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, 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 seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad