Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

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

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad