Trump's United States During Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad