The United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from China

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.

But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.

However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad