The United States During Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

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

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad