Trump's United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, 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 the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad