The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

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

Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad