The America During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

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

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, 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, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad