Trump's America Under the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad