The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

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 China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech 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 that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, 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 post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad