The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As the standup comedian, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens 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 also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed 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 the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad