Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment 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 shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad