The America Under the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now 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 the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad