Trump's United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase 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 refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad