Trump's United States Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

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

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad