The America During the New Administration Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from China

As the standup comedian, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.

But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.

Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.

But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.

“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.

“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, 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, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.

On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions 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 approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad