The America Under the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad