The United States Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage 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. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East 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 vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

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

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad