The United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.

However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad