The America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad