Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, 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 across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad