The America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

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

Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

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

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 somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”

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

On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US 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. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad