The United States During Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad