Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

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

Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad