The United States During the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing 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 delving into New York’s public library.

However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations 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, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

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 often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad