The America Under the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.

But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start 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 perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’

The deepest similarity 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, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

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

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad