The United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different 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 appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection 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 acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad