The America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past 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, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

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

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad