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

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor 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 social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era 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 declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad