The America Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad