Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad