Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country 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 for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against 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 ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention 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 demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad