The United States During the New Administration Seems Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she 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 captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad