Trump's America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.

However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar 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 type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad