Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad