Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … 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, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad