The America During Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

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

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad