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 think there’s 2 separate questions here. Is the average tourist safer from crime in the US or China? Almost certainly safer in China.
Is the average white British tourist safer from government action in the US or China? Despite everything- and I hate the orange one as much as the next sane person- I would still feel safer in the US. I’m not saying either should be top of our list - DS is off to NYC next month and I am a bit on edge - but on balance I’d still prefer he was going there than Shanghai.

Well. I have seen comment sections flooded. Stuff about Taiwan for example. I would not have thought many Brits would be saying " its ours".

I was reading a while back about " western shills" and how they do pro CPC content on youtube. I watched some vids. The Barrets I think, And Guillo60 ? I remember looking for any anti CPC stuff posted on Youtube from inside China, but none. All seems to be outside.

Then I found a channel called ADV China. That was pretty good. Explained how much of it worked. I think I am still subbed, but not watched them for ages.

So yeah, I would say the "ten cent army" is real. Based on what I have seen in online threads I have posted on.

I don’t think the average white tourist has anything to fear from the government in China.

What would happen if I got ill or had an accident whilst in China as a tourist? Assume I have standard travel insurance.
I know medical bills in USA can be eyewatering, but would expect good treatment and for my insurance to pay it. Is that fair?
Would that work the same in China?

You would be much luckier to get sick in China. For reference, my friend got a massive lump on the side of her neck while visiting me in China. It cost £2 to visit the doctor, around £20 for an ultrasound, maybe a little more (still under £100) for a biopsy and full diagnosis. The whole thing except biopsy results happened in a day (biopsy results took a few days, everything else happened within 1 day). Through my job, i have the best health insurance and i have never needed to use it, ever, because the full cost of treatment has always been too low. I have kids here so am very cautious and have found Chinese hospitals amazing, very professional, and they will test for absolutely everything related to your symptom just to be safe (unlike in the UK when they rule out less common illnesses right away unless the problem persists). It is very, very affordable.

In a rural area in China I would be concerned about the level of care and facilities. In cities the quality of equipment is excellent, however standard hygiene protocols can be lower than is desirable. A friend of mine had surgery in one of our local hospitals and procedure was fine but your would find issues such as no soap in the toilets and bed used in outpatients did not have clean sheets etc.
For expats the normal procedure when I was there was to have surgery in HK or Bangkok. I had surgery in Shanghai (too ill to travel to HK) and my experience was excellent but it was a very expensive hospital (not just for foreigners) and staying overnight was £600 before any medical costs.

On the US Id have more fear of getting shot, in China of dying in a road traffic accident. And I have a hell of a lot more faith in the American legal system than the Chinese one.

True. Hopefully as a tourist you would not have involvement with the legal system in either country.

At the moment china probably is safer

This also is crazy. As a foreigner in China, people take extra good care of you. As a country, China wants to have a good reputation and a good relationship with other countries. They aim to take particularly good care of 'foreigners' (while of course holding them to account if they do something awful). The only time i have known anyone to encounter Chinese police (due to their own fault - starting fights or having no visa and staying illegally) they have been treated fairly, kindly and with respect. The rules will be followed, but there is no need to be afraid.

Having lived in and visited both countries, I would choose to meet the Chinese police over the (trigger happy) American police, any day.

Reading your posts doesn't reassure me at all. Yes, China is safer for tourists, I think we can all agree on that. But your posts read like something out of Stalin era USSR.

"Expats", of course.

I wonder who or what would make you feel so unsafe as a lone woman in NYC or London particularly 🤔

Why would the U.S. not be more dangerous than the UK? There are 4 guns to every human in the U.S.

Well expat is the correct term for someone living for a fixed term in a foreign country where their right to remain is wholly dependent on their employment status. We had no intention to permanently settle in China and our visa was dependent on my dh’s employment contract which is why we are now back in the UK.

Hahahaha nice try. I dont need to reassure you of anything - as I have said from the beginning, use your own eyes and your own brain and go and see for yourself. Unless you are not willing to - in which case enjoy just sitting on your sofa watching biased media reports, not experiencing anything of the place, yet thinking you know best. 🤦🏻‍♀️

That post was for @5MinuteArgument , of course😂🙉

I went to America twice last year and also to China. Both felt very safe, I found China amazing, probably my joint best holiday.

Yeah, it's all the biased media. I suppose Trump is right then... 🙄

I am not sure what Mumsnet thinks is going on in the U.S. right now but in general it remains very safe. despite what idiot President may make it seem, we remain very much a free country, thousands of people have been out protesting this weekend with very little violence. We are not persecuted or silenced for expressing our political opinion. What has been going on with ICE is awful but limited and thank god there is finally a lot of backlash. People aren’t going around shooting their fellow citizens all day and all people who are non-white are not some sort of oppressed minority living in fear. California for example is minority white at this point and everyone is just living life as normal (although most are also outraged at our government). The point is we have the ability to be outraged and to do something about it (vote) despite what you may read on X about civil war, martial law, canceling elections. And I feel way safer where I live when put as a solo female than I do in London

The police burst into the gym I was using once and told me not to get any funny ideas. 😎

The police required regular "gifts" for our paperwork to be processed properly in one city I lived in.

When I had hand surgery, the doctors took photos of me unconscious and with my hand open, without my consent. After the surgery, they panicked and gave me psufentanyl until I vomited all over myself.

In a hospital in Shenzhen they turned on the MRI machine and asked if I felt drawn to it in order to check whether the metal in my hand would be a problem. 😂

Many expats are at least a little hooked on the Xanax coming from the expat clinics.

I broke my arm in China and I paid a couple of pounds for care. I was sad and uncomfortable and wished I'd not.

The stories you tell are partial and constructed mainly because the dissonance you would feel is currently too great for you to tell the truth, even to yourself.

I’ve recently travelled through China by train. It’s very easy as a tourist to get an electronic SIM with built in VPN. I even managed to watch and download from BBC iplayer live.

Did you have to go through "iChongqing" to do that ?

I recall something that non Chinese vloggers in China have to go through them. Or that they at least they organise it all, trips etc. I remember someone also posted a state media advert for vloggers. I think on reddit.

I also saw a thing where all the vloggers done an organised tour to XJ together, done through this "iChongqing" thing.

What was the internet like without a VPN ?

Could you access your usual sites, news, google etc ?

I know BBC is banned, but how about other sites, and Google play etc ?