Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, 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 undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

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

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad