The United States Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, 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 had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

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

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

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 China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad