The United States Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.

But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad