The America Under the New Administration Feels Strangely Recognizable to Observers from the East

As the standup comedian, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.

However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”

Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.

“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.

However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’

The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.

A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.

Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

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

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”

The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge 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 notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad