The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities 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 the United States, seems to be declining.”

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

Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad