Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of 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 America, seems to be declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad