The America During the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

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

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad