The United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

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

On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

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 defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

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

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

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad