Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad