Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad