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

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost 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 lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

But in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad