The America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country 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 American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

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

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad