The United States During the New Administration Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.

However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation 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 less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad