The United States During the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see 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, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

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

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad