The America During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”

Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.

However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad