The United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

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 after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous 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, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad