The United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad