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

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. 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 temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, 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 educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

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

Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad