Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

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

On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad