The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad