The America Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on 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 the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.

But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad