Trump's America During the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked 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 Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, 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 surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad