Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from China
When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad