The United States During the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

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

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”

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

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad