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

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

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

Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad