Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad