The America During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

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 an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, 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, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad