The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into 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 many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad