Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

When the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.

In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty 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. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad