Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad