The America During the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed 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. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

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

On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad