The United States During the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.

However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America 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 like himself once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed 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, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

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 Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university 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 criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad