The United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, 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 the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept 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 “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad