Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

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

On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad