Trump's America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity 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 the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

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

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad