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

When the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.

However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems 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,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, 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 official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad