The United States During the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.

However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

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

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”

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

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad