Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.

But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad