The United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death 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 a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad