Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced 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 such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar 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 teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad