Trump's America Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad