Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

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

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears 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 difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing 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 declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad