The United States Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled 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 all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad