China and the USA are now at war with another…a trade war. The old adage “all is fair in love and war” applies here too. The Chinese government has warned its citizens about the unsafe conditions in the United States, casting the country as a third-world cesspool.
Tensions are high right now between the U.S. and China. Last Friday, the Trump Administration imposed several tariffs on Chinese resources like steel and aluminum. China responded by imposing tariffs on many popular U.S. products. But that’s not all. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC also warned Chinese citizens about travel to the United States.
Reuters, which translated the updated warning, describes it this way:
The embassy warned Chinese tourists to be aware of issues including expensive medical bills, the threats of public shootings and robberies, searches and seizures by customs agents, telecommunications fraud and natural disasters.
“Public security in the United States is not good. Cases of shootings, robberies, and theft are frequent,” the embassy said in the alert published on Thursday to its website.
“Travellers in the United States should be alert to their surroundings and suspicious individuals, and avoid going out alone at night.”
When asked whether the warning was politically-motivated, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry dodged the question:
This kind of reminder from the Chinese embassy in the relevant country, I think this is absolutely a matter that is in the scope of our duty.
Fair or Unfair?
I’ve been to over 130 countries around the world including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Talk about Afghanistan or Iraq and you might picture an entire nation torn by war. But that would be an inaccurate picture. Afghanistan has natural beauty and areas that are very safe. Iraqi Kurdistan is safer than many countries who have never been torn apart by war.
The Chinese warning is such a broad generalization it strikes me as nothing less than a punitive, politically-motivated move to discourage U.S. tourism.
Cases of robbery, theft, and shooting are “frequent” in the USA. But context matters. There are over 325 million people who live in the USA. Avoid going out alone at night? Depends on where you are. I would feel totally safe walking around my neighborhood at 2am. There are vast swaths of the country that do not even lock doors. Telecommunications fraud? Really “Great Firewall” China?
CONCLUSION
It’s not like this issue is only a Chinese problem. Whenever the U.S. issues a new travel warning, it seems inevitable that Award Expert clients line up to cancel trips. As if the whole of Turkey or Morocco is under siege…
I don’t give much weight to travel warnings, but it is clear they can be used as a political tool. Fair or not, that’s what China is doing here.
The USA better hope that China doesn’t revoke it as an authorized tourist destination for its citizens because that would be a BIG blow to US airlines and the tourism industry! Never mind luxury retailers that depend on Chinese tourists.
All political but I doubt the prospective tourists will take much note. It would be better for the Chinese govt to issue warnings about Thailand….another 60 Chinese dead in a boat accident in Phuket, including many children. The Thai govt is utterly clueless in dealing with the shysters/mafia who control the islands. If ever there was a 3rd world cesspit, it’s Thailand almost by definition.
As always with these things, there is a kernel of truth in the statements. Certainly, the USA is less safe than most fully developed countries and, in that respect, it’s a surprise to people and worth mentioning. Only last week, a major convention pulled out of San Francisco because the (US) delegates felt unsafe there. The murder rate in the USA is much higher than in most other developed countries and Immigration, Customs and the TSA operate in a method which is so capricious and with such limited legal restraint that it would simply be illegal in most other developed countries.
Having said all that, it’s a question of context. Above, I’ve compared the USA to other fully developed countries. If you make the comparison to developing countries, or to countries only just starting down that road, then the USA is far safer and operates far more fairly. And, whilst I have no idea how safe it is in China, I have no doubt that their Customs, Immigration and airport security officers will have even fewer safeguards put upon them.
In China it is very safe because I live there. Usually, the worst person you will meet are beggars living on the streets or those people who are drunk. Very rarely will you find murder or homicide. Kidnapping has decreased dramitically following the start of the 21th century, the 1990s were the times of that. Nor are there many robberies. Now China is becoming more and more developed. Over half of the population is living in urban and according to my own life, America isn’t safe. I have heard that a person living near our house have died because of murder, and the family living next to us posesses guns, even those underage. The sheriff came to his house to deal with that. The school I went to has drugs and overall America is not a country that I feel as safe.
The US is dangerous? That doesn’t stop the Chinese wanting to come for college education, giving birth, marriages, opening businesses, etc. — anything to gain American residence and citizenship.
The Chinese are fiercely nationalistic. Even though their citizens have been buying up US property like crazy to desperately emigrate their families to the US (to escape the repression, pollution, toxic food, etc), if they feel insulted, they will go to the extreme with protests and boycotts (but still try to leave the country). The government is obviously nudging their citizens into this fury. The long term damage to our economy could be severe. On the other hand, something has to be done about their wholesale theft of intellectual property, trade and military secrets, their illegal barriers blocking their markets from US companies, and their listing of fake companies on our stock exchanges to take even more money out of our economy. Trump’s approach is naive and ham fisted but something needs to be done (the trade war against our allies is simply idiotic though).
Well, being a bit more specific on the higher crime areas in the US would be called racism.
This is correct. The US is unsafe with plenty of institutionalized violence. I surely feel more safe in China, or Russia, than in many US cities. It is a very scary country.
Correct Ron.
7,533 people have been killed by guns in the U.S in 2018.
There have been 154 mass shootings in in the U.S. in 2018.