Trump's America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. 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. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad