Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

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

Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad