The United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring 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 the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad