Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. 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 New York’s library system.

But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad