The America Under the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire 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 the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … 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, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning 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 refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad