Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Seems Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.

However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad