The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

But in the 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 find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad