Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, 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 could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, 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.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

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

On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad