The America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government 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 other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad