Trump's United States Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge 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 hadn't thought that something like this 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 government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged 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 used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

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

Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad