The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

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

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

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing 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 declining.”

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

On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad