Trump's America During Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.

But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets 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 Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad