Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.

But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – 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 espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad