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

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about 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 post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

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

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad