The America During the New Administration Seems Strangely Familiar to Those Watching from China

When 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 which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”

Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.

In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.

His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar 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 type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

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

Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”

The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.

On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad