Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

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

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad