Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” 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 sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation'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 all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad