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

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.

“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor 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 students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad