The United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

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

Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though 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 emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” 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 line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad