The United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, 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 mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad