The United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad