Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start 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 the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad