The America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. 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 appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.

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 numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” 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 line between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad