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

As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, 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 the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad