The United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad