The United States During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.

“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad