Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 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 embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, 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 the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

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

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

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

Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad