The America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

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

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad