Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start 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 carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad