Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.

However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad