The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.

However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom 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.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad