The United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad