The United States Under the New Administration Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help 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.

“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant 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 could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”

The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad