The United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. 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 on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad