The America Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

In September, 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 – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”

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

Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad