Trump's America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, 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, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons 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 new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. 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 Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad