The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

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

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad