Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels 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 new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad