Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed 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 recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad