USA or China a safer tourist destination?

[nOlives]

Yesterday the news suggested Starmer and Xi Jinping were discussing visaless entry to China for Brits.
I know China is not perfect and I have occasionally mentioned or agreed with comments about Uyghurs. I am not Uyghur or Taiwanese.
I have also posted and agreed with quite a lot of comments about Trump, and also USA gun tragedies and airport experiences. I am white British.

AIBU to think China is a safer (and far more interesting) tourist destination than USA just now, not only for me but for most people?

I would MUCH prefer to go to China than America, and have always felt safe in the far east. I wouldn’t feel safe going to the US nowadays.

I've been to both, for work, in the last couple of years and felt much, much safer in China than I did in the US. For me this was largely down to the lack of guns in China and total abscence of any (visible) crime. Both countries have some worrying human rights issues but as a visitor I would rather go to China again than the US.

20 year old DD has been to China and felt very safe. I’d definitely be more worried about her in the states in terms of guns and crime. I’d much prefer to visit China.

I'd say if you work for the British government you might want to think twice about visiting China (although if you are in a dept/role that carries risk they would tell you that anyway). Otherwise China safer everyday of the week. US has higher crime of all kinds and their police and other front line federal agents seem to be badly trained and exhibit very poor judgement, so not very trustworthy or reliable in an emergency.

I've been to both in the past 18 months and felt perfectly safe. Yanbu to think China is safer but I generally find the US easier/safer in an emergency because of the lack of language barrier.

I’ve been to both fairly recently.

I took US citizenship when I lived there. I follow current events with a very heavy heart and am moderately active politically, characterising myself as centre-left.
Nevertheless I think the fears about America on MumsNet tend to be overstated. The relative risks are very small, at least for British - sadly less so for British PoC, but even so, quite good. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many good people from certain countries.

OTOH for most of us, visiting innocently as tourists or on business, China is unquestionably one of the safest places on Earth.

I wouldn’t go to either. With all the countries in the world, I’d happily give both of these a swerve. Would not set foot in USA atm, and my DH has to get permission from our government to go to China (he does government contracted work), which raises a flag to me as he doesn’t have to do the same for many other countries, e.g. France, England, Canada, Thailand, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa. There is a list of countries he needs permission to visit/holiday, seemingly due to dodgy governments, so why anyone would want to go to any of those is baffling.

I've been to China. It was fascinating and I felt very safe.

I haven't ever really been interested in visiting the USA, and I certainly wouldn't entertain the idea of going there while the current administration is in place. As to how safe it is, I imagine that it varies significantly from one part of the country to the next.

My son generally feels safer in China than in the US or UK.

I'd feel safer in China for sure. Wouldn't set foot in the US anytime soon.

China is much safer than the US for tourists. No guns , less crime and a government that welcomes tourists rather than seeing them as potential illegal immigrants.

My daughter is planning to go to the USA this year and I'm extremely worried about it. If she were planning to go to China I wouldn't be worried.

I’ve been to both, and while I might return to China, I won’t go near the US for the foreseeable.

America is descending into madness, and I think it’ll get worse before it gets better.

Safe from crime or safe from the government?

A few men from my country who were working in China were arrested and held in prison there for several years, as diplomatic retaliation, and were interrogated 8 hours a day and denied contact with Canadian officials - so I would not be all that inclined to go there. Particularly having worked in similar roles as one of the men in the past.

Some of the religious persecution there would worry me as well.

This is absurd. Yes, you would no doubt feel safe in China as a tourist.

But China has a terrible human rights record. The Chinese Communist Party is engaged in ethnic cleansing of several ethnic minority communities. There are hundreds of anti govt protests going on over there at the moment and people can be arrested and killed with total impunity.

Chinese people in the UK are afraid of the Chinese government.

Minimising the extent of the Chinese Communist Party's oppression is just crazy.

I know it's nuts.

The fact that Chinese people people in the UK are afraid of being kidnapped by Chinese secret police is not worrying, apparently.

China is a very safe country, i’d go there over US though personally i’d go to neither.

Agreed. I'm not saying people shouldn't visit China, and as a tourist you're likely to be safe.

But people should have at least some awareness of what's going on over there. I watched a programme about the treatment of Uighurs and it made me feel ill. One of the things they did was concreting over Uighur cemeteries to turn them into car parks. In other words, total cultural erasure.

I haven't been to USA in some years but China is definitely a very safe place and probably much safer than USA. I would never venture out to some places in NYC or even London as a lone woman, but there is no such hesitation in China.

There was a radio report on LBC about the new rules to allow visa free travel to China. They went to London's Chinatown to ask Chinese people what they thought of it. Nobody agreed to speak. They are afraid of the reach of the Chinese Communist Party.

I agree it is problematic to say the least.

I have Chinese colleagues who are lovely and need links with the west. I am not going to politicise academic knowledge.

I try not to support repressive regimes in other ways, eg by paying fair prices for well made, ethically produced products.

Finding the balance is tricky at best but isolating Chinese academics does not seem to me to be the answer.

The 2 Micheals ?

Or the coffee shop owners ?

I think the jury is still out on the former, even amongst the anti CPC side.

The latter.. hmm.. they were breaking the law by evangelizing.

I hope this happens, for the sake of UK travelers. The Chinese visa is a hassle to obtain, and this is one area where the UK can perhaps catch up a bit with its EU and EEA counterparts, who have had a tourist waiver for China since 2023/2024.

However, China and the USA are separate destinations, not easily or intuitively interchangeable. Each has issues, and each should be carefully evaluated in its own right before and during any trip. China does have dangers, including the risk of foreigners being arrested and held for inadvertently violating laws and policies that may be opaque to an outside. There are also environmental issues such as pollution and major traffic jams that are likely to cause extreme inconvenience, if not danger. And the situation of the Uighurs is not trivial; it is deliberate, well documented, and long term.

Why do you think China is unsafe for you?

That's a strangely selfish and self involved evaluation. Who cares about your hypothetical vacation. What about the people who live there.

China imprisoned its feminists. They're still in jail. Abortion limits are shitter than the UK. Domestic violence is unprosecuted. China executes more people per year than any other country. They do business with Iran and Russia. Your average woman on the street is vocally in agreement with invading Taiwan. Xinjiang is an open prison.

Glad it checks out for your tourist needs though!