The America During the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about 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'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

However in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi 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. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.

But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

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

On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad