Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, 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 post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures 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 said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad