The America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Familiar to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.

But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.

However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.

In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

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

Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad