The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain 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, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad