The United States During the New Administration Seems Oddly Familiar to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.

But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.

The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.

“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.

However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”

“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.

An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad