The United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge 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,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed 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, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad