Trump's United States During the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned 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, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad