Trump's America During the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, 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 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, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, 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 overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “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