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

When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.

But in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power 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 a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

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

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding 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 legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad