Trump's America During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing 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 in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad