Trump's America Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that 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 Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom 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.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

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

On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad