The United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death 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 being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see 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, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad