The United States During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad